Law firm Boodle Hatfield has today been named The Legal 500’s UK Firm of the Year for its work in the residential real estate market.

The Legal 500 has awarded Boodle Hatfield its ‘Real Estate Firm (Specialism) of the Year’ award, recognising the contributions made by specialist property law firms. The firm has beaten some of the world’s largest law firms to the crown from across a wide variety of real estate disciplines including planning, construction, environmental and social housing law.

The award is based on over 70,000 interviews with law firms and their clients across the UK to identify those firms and individual practitioners at “the top of their game”.

The Legal 500 says of Boodle Hatfield that it is “one of the best in the market” and an “undoubted leader in the residential arena”. The award and research singles out partners Saskia Arthur, who leads the firm’s seven-strong Residential Property team and is “highly regarded by her loyal following of clients”, as well as Amanda O’Keeffe, Jane Littlejohn and Shaima Jillood.

Boodle Hatfield is the only firm to have two top ranked partners - Saskia Arthur and Amanda O'Keeffe.

Boodle Hatfield’s Residential Property team is behind some of the largest and most exclusive property deals in the UK, acting for high net worth individuals looking to buy and sell trophy London homes and large country estates. The team has one of the strongest enfranchisement teams in the UK, acts for a large number of prime residential developers, and acts for Grosvenor advising on the continued residential development of Mayfair, St James’s and Belgravia.

In 2016, the firm appointed new partner Shaima Jillood and solicitor Reem Al Jumaily to build and grow the firm’s dedicated Middle East residential property practice. Both are fluent Arabic speakers with an intimate understanding and appreciation of the cultural demands of Middle Eastern clients and their family offices. Demand and interest from Middle Eastern clients looking to invest and acquire property in the UK continues to remain strong.

Amanda O'Keeffe joined Boodle Hatfield three years ago. Amanda's wide-ranging residential real estate practice covers the conveyancing, letting and financing of high value London and country homes and estates and her reputation for being extraordinarily efficient, personable and professional has been key to the growing success of the team in recent years.

Partner and Head of Residential Property Saskia Arthur said: “We are thrilled that our residential team has been recognised as the UK’s leading residential real estate law firm. We have always prided ourselves on the level of service and advice that we are able to provide to high net worth clients wishing to buy, sell, invest, finance or manage residential properties.”

Saskia continues: “We take a pragmatic, but commercial approach to our work to ensure that our client's goals are met. What sets us apart is our partner-led residential team with a huge breadth of experience, with the ability to offer a very broad spectrum of advice to our clients across the residential team. We have a joined-up and full service offering that goes beyond the property work where we have the ability to draw upon other experts from our other highly regarded private client, tax, enfranchisement, construction, litigation, matrimonial and arts teams, as and when required. It is wonderful to see that our approach, broad abilities and dedication to our clients in providing a successful residential private wealth property service has been recognised.”

The team are also top ranked in Chambers HNW 2017 which comments “We've had some deals where, if it hadn't been for Boodle Hatfield's pragmatism, the deals would not have happened - that's a great testament to them. They're also incredibly user-friendly, and a very nice bunch of people. They've always got time to speak to you, which really helps.”